1) Travel. In August, baby N traveled with me to MN for his first time. The trip was quite busy, but some of the main events included a mother/daughter kayak trip; visiting with my uncle and aunt who were up visiting from VA; celebrating my cousin's wedding, bachelorette party, and her son's baptism; attending my 10yr high school reunion; and having a memorial service for my dad's younger sister who sadly passed away from a heart attack at age 49. N and I met the other 4 baby cousins, who are essentially the same age.To digress, since I moved to AK permanently after having spent 2 summers up here, I've flown back to MN 10 times: Jan 05, Jul 05, Sept 05, Dec 05, Aug 06, Dec 06, (in 07, we built a house), Jul 08, Jun 09, Dec 09, and Aug 10. My parents from MN have come up here to AK to visit 10 times also: Jun 05, Jun 06, Nov 06, Apr 07, Oct 07, Dec 07, Mar - Apr 08 (separately for the birth of baby A), Dec 08, Mar - Apr 10 (separately for birth of baby N), June 10. We didn't try to make it even; it just turned out that way! Anyway, as a result my husband, our children, and I are very close to my parents, which is extremely important to us. Along the way, we've also helped each other out a lot. My dad helped us out tremendously when we built our house, and both my mom and dad provided a lot of help with both the kids and other projects when they've come to visit. On the flip side, my husband (he's only been down to MN 3 times though) is able to help out on their farm, haying and splitting wood, when he goes. We're going in November for my dad's 60th birthday, and the whole family is able to go, so my husband will get to help out on the farm once again.
2) Chores. It never ends around here. I keep journals for each of my kids so that they may read about the ups and downs, their talents and achievements of childhood when they're older. I realized yesterday 5 months have passed since I last wrote to them in their journals and my oh my have they grown up since that last journal entry. I blame this lapse in time on the chores that make the days fly by so quickly. My husband has finished preparing for winter. This includes gathering all of the summer outdoor tools and toys together and storing them, bringing the boats in for safe storage, and preparing many cord of wood for us for the winter, which is by far the heftiest task of all. (It is nice to burn renewable energy though not to mention that it saves us a lot of money in fuel oil). I do the majority of the cooking and cleaning and laundry, but my husband still plays a major role. He likes to help with the cleaning and he is quite a fantastic cook. I earned my keep as a gatherer this summer and picked tons of rasperries and blueberries, some of which I preserved as jam and syrup and some of which we will eat in yogurt over the winter. But, most of the time is consumed in daily tasks such as preparing meals, cleaning up after, keeping us clean and dressed. It is amazing how much more time this takes when you have two children rather than one. The 3rd "child," the dog barely ever gets his nails clipped anymore or gets a bath or a brush; to compensate, he does get extra food, so I don't think he minds much that he is at the bottom of the chain of chores. Sometimes people ask, "Would you like some fish or a houseplant?" The answer is "No, it will probably get lost in the mix and die so why bother trying."
3) Work and school and daycare. My husband has been working 10-12 hours a day and for the first time ever last weekend brought his work home with him (something he has always tried not to do). This is mainly because in a few weeks he will take a new job as a Reliability Supervisor. So, now, he is finishing up his old job which is neither reliability nor production. He is a Technical Trainer and is giving a 3 week long training session to a few of the reliability operators among other things. I will graduate with a Master's in Environmental Science this spring. So, I am taking a course on Energy this fall and will have a Risk Assessment and an Environmental Chemistry course next semester. So that I can find the time and energy to study somewhat uninterrupted, we budget for our oldest child to go to daycare two mornings a week. He looks forward to it because he has several great friends there, one of which he potty trained, and of course there are a ton of toys there. I like it because he learns good manners there and also does preschool activities.
I have been working on several other projects, which have consumed a lot of time. They have been frustrating for me, so I will bring them up when I see results at a later date.
Adios, summer! It may have been the best and the fastest so far. They always say that time flies when you're having fun.
